Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp met with the media after the Reds' disastrous performance against Real Madrid on Tuesday night. Liverpool lost 5-2 at Anfield in the first leg of the Champions League Round of 16.
While Darwin Núñez and Mohamed Salah scored goals within the first 15 minutes of the match, the Reds couldn't hold onto the lead. Real Madrid came storming back to tie the match by halftime. They would rip Liverpool open in the second half and win going away.
Klopp didn't hide, he said, “I really think everything was pretty obvious tonight; I think we gave all five goals away and that means we could have done better there…”
The manager thought the first half was quite good. He said, “The start in the game, in our situation where we are, it is really important that we see positive steps - and I think the first half was, besides the two goals we conceded, the best we've played for probably the whole season. I liked it a lot.”
On the beginning of the second half, Klopp said, “Half-time, [it was] rather positive, to be honest. You think, 'OK, this happened... we have to play in this and that space, if we keep doing that they will have problems...' and then we start with conceding the third goal, which was a horrible goal and today it was pretty much the game-changer.”
Klopp was asked directly if tonight's defeat would have a negative effect on his team's confidence. He responded, “I can see that people think that, understandable, but that's actually not allowed… So if we now allow this one game to be influential, well, we are really silly.”
The Boss wants to accentuate the positive moving forward. He said, “We have a few days and we will make sure we take the right things out of this game. Yes, we have to improve, third goal massively, first goal massively, but we have to take the good things as well - that would be horrible if we don't do that.”
In his press conference, Real manager Carlo Ancelotti said he believes the Reds still have a chance. Klopp might believe it too in a few weeks, but he also believes that Ancelotti might be fibbing a bit. Klopp said, “I think Carlo thinks the tie is over - and I think it as well in the moment, but in three weeks... it's how it is in these moments, the closer you get to the game the bigger our chances become and the less likely it is the tie is over.”
These are dark days for Liverpool. As we talked about in our recap, not only are the Reds on the verge of being bounced from this year's Champions League, they might not qualify for next year.
